“How?” the word trembles out of me. “How did you...?”
“How did I find this?” she asks teasingly as she locks her phone. “Everyone knows my father is a property developer. Imagine my shock when I found out he’d taken me to such a seedy location.”
“My mom,” I stutter, “umm, she hasn’t… It, umm… Not for ten years.”
Camila huffs, brushing me off. “Oh my gosh, I’ve no idea what you’re talking about. But it’s your mother. I found old ledgers in the building. Oh, and don’t worry, I have the original for safekeeping.”
Sweat builds on my forehead. “Why? What are you...?”
Camila flicks her sleek chestnut hair, looking off to the side as she says, “Like, I didn’t even want to post it to my story last night, because it’d be admitting I was in such a seedy location.”
My heart pounds rapidly as hope burns inside me. “You didn’t?”
She eyes her glittery manicure and grins. “Only five-hundred people saw.”
I gulp hard, feeling all the blood drain to my feet. “Why… Why?” It’s all I can manage as she struts away from me.
I blink hard, watching the student body merge Camila into the crowd.
Why would she do this? Even though I hate when she personally attacks me, it’s better me than my mother. It’s not like she did that work because she thought it was fun. She got that job to make the most money she could to get us out of Logan’s Point. Grams gave her a job at the cafe, but Mom still wanted to provide more for Maddy and me. She spent the next few years completing her cafe shifts and then would drive back to Logan’s Point to work nights at the club. Of course, if I had understood what was happening when I was an infant, I would’ve told her not to do it. But Mom did what she thought was right. Even if it meant going back to the place she fled and avoiding any contact with my dad.
“Hey, James, how was practice?” Kai asks, walking toward me. He stops dead when I’m still paralyzed with shock. “Whoa. What’s happened?”
I shake my head, keeping my mouth clenched tight. The whole interaction makes me sick to my stomach.
“Jamie?” he asks softly, pulling me off to the side. “You look completely rattled.”
I swallow hard, wincing at the sour taste. “Camila.”
Kai rolls his eyes. “What’d she do now?”
“Have you seen her latest story?”
He pulls out his phone. “I don’t follow her junk.”
I wipe my brow and hunch over. “She posted a picture of my mom.”
Kai makes a strange face. “Why?”
I hug my middle, my eyes darting around the students passing us in the hall. “She found it. My mom’s wearing very little, advertising a club.”
Kai quickly searches on his phone, and I smack my hand over it. “No, don’t. I don’t want to see it again.”
“Let me see it,” Kai says. “Then I know what I’m up against when I tell her to take it down.”
I drop my hand and exhale a shaky breath.
Kai clicks on Camila’s page and shakes his head. “It’s not here.”
I peer over at his phone. “What do you mean?”
“It’s just pictures of her breakfast and her dogs.”
“Maybe it’s already expired?”
Kai slips his phone back into his pocket. “What have I told you about her? She’s all talk, no action. I don’t know why you let her get to you.”
I give him a sharp look. “It was a picture of my mom.”
